Applespider

Another thing that can affect wifi speeds/reliability at this time of year is Christmas lights between you and your base station.

Just watch out since there are two different reasons for compensation and the second one is less well known even when you speak to billing departments. I put my claim in through my normal payment route rather than UK Power Networks though. You're entitled to the compensation if the power is off for more than 18 hours at one time - which is the one they all know about and will try to fob you off if it wasn't 18 hours in total. This is also the one where the compensation will keep rising for every 12 hours beyond that - although I think they get a bit of grace if it was weather-related in terms of the cash bumping up. The second one is one that you really have to dig around for and which quite often the first person you speak to will deny all knowledge of. This is the one that covers multiple short instances. It used to be 3 times with 6 hours off in a six month period but I believe it's now 4 times with 3 hours off in a year. That one is a fixed rate though and I don't think it goes up if you have a 5th power cut.

I miss mine too although it wasn't just fear of skidding myself that I was worried about. Given some of the v dodgy driving on snow, I didn't really fancy being out there with drivers who couldn't control their vehicles when I was around. I walked to Brixton on Thursday morning following quite a bit of my regular bike route there... and it took me 3 times longer :'(

Thanks James and since buses were getting to LL this morning at least some of the grit has done its job. I haven't seen any of the trolley gritters or any evidence of them. Do they have a similar priority ranking? If so, are the paths to bus stops on the main roads a priority? And again, pavements on hills would be good!

Do think the bus drivers deserve praise for keeping so many routes on the road this time round. While there were delays and higher demand than usual, the bus service does seem to have been better than Jan's snow. I was astonished to see some of them this morning. Think I might drop a note to TFL or the 185's operators.

What buses I saw on LL earlier thus morning were packed to gunnels so I walked to Brixton and hopped on Tube. Was quite invigorating and I suspect quicker/warmer than hanging round the bus stop until a 185 with room came by

Ooooh... fish pie. Haven't tried Nigel's but will go have a hunt for the recipe... It was simple lentil soup with sourdough bread dunked in it tonight... that curry also has my mouth watering...

I always wonder whether the top end of Forest Hill Road, the top of London Road and Wood Vale all suffer since they're on the edge of the borough and share a boundary with Lewisham - does each council think the other will do it? Definitely not as bad as it was earlier in the year. There weren't many trains leaving Victoria so hopped on a 185 which brought me home. Fascinating watching the snow level increase as you got further out. VIrtually nothing at Vauxhall, Oval, an inch or so by Denmark Hill and 4 inches by the time you reach the Horniman. I suspect the majority of the snow falling during the day where the volume of traffic on key roads helps keep the main roads clearer than in Jan when the initial drop was overnight and it had built up before traffic kicked in. Tomorrow morning, if it continues all night, will probably be more challenging!

I love it too. I have snow boots, woolly hat/scarf and gloves rather than trying to ignore it and teetering around in heels/ballet pumps as many of mining colleagues are. You can't stop it, you can't change it so just make a snow angel and enjoy... At least til supermarkets run out of milk..

Go to your class. I fully intend going to my gym class, then dinner before heading back. Might be more chance of roads being clearer or having been gritted by then... 5 inches in Forest Hill... does the Horniman really count as higher ground for weather forecast purposes?

Other parts of the country have snow ploughs, more gritters and generally shorter commutes with less dependence on public transport. If you live within 2 miles of the office, it's generally easier to walk it than if you live more than 5 miles out like many Londoners. In Scotland, most trains are still diesel powered so they're less affected by icy/snowy rails and have snow ploughs fitted on the front.

Oh... I have my snow boots under the desk just in case I have to walk any distance but which buses are running may influence which route home I take to get most of the way home. I'd have a shortest walk from Forest Hill station but have to pay for extension and overall journey time longer than going to Denmark Hill or Peckham Rye and getting bus.

Assuming the 363 is the same or is it just the U turn rather than the turn into Woodvale that is too slippy?

Keep a note of power outages. If it goes off 3 times in six months (for six hours at a time) you can claim ?50 back from electricity company

rubsley - presumably number 11 should be the easiest to achieve on that list... I've never been to Paris which given the proximity seems wrong.

Not entirely sure which is more offputting... one with veins... or one shaped like a dolphin/monkey/rabbit etc Perhaps that 'Bone' is the way to go... Lelo and Fun Factory have some less 'obvious' toys too

Yup... but there are a lot of people living round here and perhaps they don't all cook every night. There are probably enough households to fill the LL eateries even if each one only ate out once a month... just so long as we didn't pick the same month. Tonight's warming meal was home-made chicken broth with bits of chicken in it, a poached egg and some parmesan. And I'm about to go off for some homemade gingerbread loaf with a nice cup of tea.

Try it in a different USB port? Try something else in that USB port? If you've got access to any other iPod/iPhone, try that one or a different USB/iPod cable? That way, you should be able to rule out whether it's the laptop or the iPhone or the cable that has the problem. First off, you have tried the initial old standby of helpdesks everywhere, restarting the laptop?

Look up the 'Couch to 5K' courses to start with and don't skimp on the early stuff. It's tempting sometimes to skip the odd break and push yourself for an extra few minutes in the early stages since you feel OK. Don't do it... it's those early low intensity stints that get your heart fit and lay the foundations for comfortable running later. I'm speaking from experience having done it both the wrong way and the right way. 10K is a lovely distance... do-able in an hour for most people so training doesn't take shedloads of time out of your week and it's quite a relaxing distance.

I was in the supermarket the other week and hunting for some nuts which could have been alongside the fruit/veg or beside the baking goods or with the 'snacks' I was wishing for a search function that would just bring all the various packets of nuts and line them up in front of me rather than me trawling through all the aisles.

ultraneon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Interesting! I use a 2/3 zone travelcard, but for > the past four years, I've been buying a zone 1 day > travelcard if I take the bus to the Southbank. > Does this mean I can get on a bus in zone 1 with > my 2/3 travelcard? Yup... you've paid for the bus fare so its irrelevant how far you travel on it. I've used mine out in zone 6/7 without any hassle

Before the flat rate bus fares (one price regardless of number if stops travelled), zones made a difference on buses since your fare was based on zones travelled. Now so long as you have any Travelcard with a bus component, you can get on any bus. The quote above says you can use buses in ALL zones but only trams if you have other zones. I live in zone 3 but since I only catch trains in 1/2, I can just buy the z1/2 travelcard. When I first lived there, it was a z1-3 pass

The Builders Arms in Chelsea round the back of Habitat on Kings Road. Squishy sofas, some food, a little fire. It's v cosy... The Black Friar at Blackfriars is good too. Not as cosy but amazing decor so stuff to talk about and food surprisingly good.

Think they send it out 60 days ahead now. Plus when they were migrating stuff to MobileMe, they did mess up a few times and people ended up with free months so I think many expiry dates have shifted. Mine used to be Jan and is now June One thing to know is that you can buy cheap boxes of MobileMe on eBay since people get discounts on it when they buy Mac hardware... You can buy it and use the code in the box to renew.

It changed a couple of years ago. .mac no longer exists but your username will still work with either domain at the end. There were quite a few mails sent out by Apple during the transition To add confusion, some MobileMe features are now free like Find My iPhone which used to only come as part if the paid service There are cheaper ways of getting most of the functionality but sometimes the convenience/ease of use factor outweighs the cost factor.